Joystiq has discovered that Bethesda Softworks has filed for a trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office staking claim on the Fallout name for “motion picture films about a post-nuclear apocalyptic world.” Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that anything is in the works (although, I’d be very surprised if something wasn’t in the early stages of development), but it does confirm that Bethesda is considering their options.

Fallout is a popular series of role-playing games which started in 1997. The games are set in and after the 22nd and 23rd century, but the story and artwork are heavily influenced by 1950’s post-war American culture. The world has been devastated by the great 2077 nuclear war, but privileged segments of the population were able to hide away in “Vaults,” fallout shelters which were built by the US government around the country.

The original Fallout took place in southern California in the year 2161, with the protagonist of the game is tasked to recover a water chip to replace the chip that broke in his Vault. Fallout 2 took place 80 years after the original game and centered around a descendant of the original protagonist who tries to save Arroyo, his village, after several years of drought.

And Fallout 3 picked up the story 30 years after that, or 200 years after the nuclear war, and follows the story of a vault-dweller who must venture out into the Wasteland around Washington, D.C. to find his father who went missing outside in the wasteland shortly after his 19th birthday. Fallout 3 won numerous awards including Best Overall Game 2008 from IGN, Best RPG and Best PC Game from GameSpot, Best Overall Game of the Year 2008 from GameSpy, and many others.If a film was made of the series, it is more likely that the film would be adapted from the third game.

Right now the story is very speculative, but with Hollywood rummaging through board games and action figure lines for potential film properties, it seems only a matter of time before every popular video game franchise is optioned for the big screen,